I was supposed to be up in Haida Gwaii this weekend for SEHAB meetings and tours of local stewardship projects, but a nasty stomach bug and fever that hit the night before the early Friday morning flight kept me grounded.
By noon today I was feeling good enough to get out and about again, so I consoled my loss of Haida Gwaii with a few hours shooting nature photos in South Surrey.
Bald Eagle carrying fish
Dancing cranefly duo. Whoops, more likely some kind of wasps?
Saw lots of bees in Byrne Creek Ravine Park in SE Burnaby today.
I took advantage of a lull in the rain to get some closeup shots around our front door and on our balcony. Also one of our turtle under her sun lamp.
For the photographers, these were shot with a Nikon D300 DSLR and my all-manual, some 35-year-old 55mm/3.5 Micro Nikkor.
Dori looks more orange than green with the warm color temperature of her basking lamp
Updated my professional photo for LinkedIn and other uses. Truth in advertising, eh? : -) The last one was about fifteen years old, and showed me out in the field in GoreTex doing some streamkeeping activity. This one is intended to look more corporate communicator, editor, writer…
I took in the Broadway Camera / Nikon Canada camera/lens event at Iona Beach Regional Park near YVR (Vancouver International Airport). It was fun trying out all the latest Nikon gear, and huge Nikkor telephoto and telephoto zoom lenses.
I fell in lust with the new Nikon D500 just as I figured I would. Amazingly responsive autofocus and blazing speed make for a superb wildlife camera. Going to need to save up a lot of coins in the spare change jar! : -)
I then shot some osprey and tree swallow photos with my, er, Tamron 150-600mm lens : -). Hey, I’ve got several Nikon DSLRs and half a dozen Nikkors, too!
This mess of baby spiders has been hanging around over our front door for several days now. Have to keep remembering to open and close the door gently…
If you’re a nature/wildlife photographer in the BC lower mainland, this looks like great fun!
Join Nikon and Broadway Camera on May 15th at Iona Beach Regional Park for a birding photo walk. Try some of Nikon’s most advanced camera bodies and high-performance telephoto lenses, ideal for capturing that perfect bird photo.
I was shocked to see Byrne Creek running a milky gray-green the day after volunteer streamkeepers and local schoolchildren released several thousand coho smolts (yearlings) into the creek.
I called the City of Burnaby, and neither City staff nor I saw any dead or distressed fish, but folks, please remember that NOTHING is to go down street drains other than rain.
We missed a bullet today!
Griffiths’ Pond near Edmonds Skytrain Station
Kids from Glenwood Elementary, volunteers from the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers Society, and DFO Community Advisor Maurice Coulter-Boisvert released coho smolts in Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby this morning. Great to have help from City of Burnaby staff, too!
A few shots of the fun:
DFO CA Maurice
Talking salmon life cycle
Netting smolts in the transport tank
City of Burnaby staff help fill baggies of fish for the kids
Handing out baggies of fish
Streamkeeper volunteers supervise releases
A lovely coho smolt
After the kids had to leave to get back to school, we released the rest of the salmon in the artificial spawning channel
Cleaning my office today I ran across some words of wisdom posted to the Society of Writers, Editors, and Translators (Japan) mail list back in 1996 by Fred Uleman, quoting “Hugh Gigante of MktgMavens”:
1. I never work free of charge
2. I never work cheap
3. I charge more than others because I am better than them
4. I never get paid based on performance, only deliverables
5. I define deliverables
6. I always have more of the client’s money than he has of my time
7. Rates go up every six months
8. People who want work free or on spec must first show that they are working on the same basis, and are a legal charity
9. Every client can be fired, any day
10. Repeat number 1.